If anybody deserved to lift the FA Cup for Everton in
May 1995, it was this man. Nine years of impeccable service to the club had
brought him scant reward in terms of trophies; a 1986/87 League Championship
and assorted cup loser's medals amounted to very little for a player of his
calibre and loyalty.

He has pretty well seen it all at Goodison Park: the highs,
like the Championship Title in 1987 and the 1995 FA Cup win; the lows, such
as the 1989 FA Cup Final defeat by Liverpool and the slow, painful decline
of Everton which followed it and culminated, paradoxically, in another brief
moment of ecstasy with the famous 3-2 Escape To Victory against Wimbledon
in 1994 (see THAT GAME); and
Europe  he has the odd distinction of being the club's oldest European
debutant, at the age of 33, in 1995.

Though he is now Evertonian to the core, the Watson career
started with his boyhood heroes half a mile from Goodison Park, at Anfield.
He was unable to make an impact on the successful Liverpool first-team, and
moved on to Norwich City without ever making a senior appearance. There he
started to prove himself, before long assuming the captaincy and forging
a solid central-defensive partnership with Steve Bruce. At the tender age
of 23, he lifted the Milk Cup after a 1-0 Final victory over Sunderland in
1985. The previous season he had won the first of twelve England caps in
the famous 2-0 win in the Maracana Stadium, a game remembered for John Barnes's
incredible solo goal.

In August 1986, Norwich manager Ken Brown accepted a
£900,000 bid from Howard Kendall  having
already refused one of £700,000  and Watson came home to Merseyside.
He was signed ostensibly as cover for the injured Derek Mountfield, a player
the Everton fans idolised. Given this, and Watson's initial difficulty in
adapting from Norwich's more straightforward man-for-man marking to the zonal
system employed by Kendall, it was not surprising when he was soon out of
the team.

However, after getting to grips with the Everton defensive
tactics and reclaiming his place, he began to impress with his courage,
commitment and aerial ability. That season his new team were Champions, and
Watson has been more or less a fixture in the side ever since. He seemed
born to lead, and in January 1992 inherited the captain's armband from
Kevin Ratcliffe when the Welshman was released.
Unfortunately his captaincy included the lowest spell of the club's recent
history in the years before Joe Royle took over
as manager and then, when Royle left in March 1997, Watson was appointed
caretaker-manager.

Not bad for an ex-red. Nobody can be in any doubt as
to his commitment to Everton now, though, as was demonstrated after that
landmark Wimbledon game. Director Bill Kenwright found the skipper in the
Goodison car park, and asked if he was okay, and where was his car? Watson
replied: "I'm not taking the car, I'll be doing cartwheels all the way
home!"